New Health Law Requires Mental Health Patients to Give Consent Before Getting Treatments

A new mental health law is now requiring consent from mental health patients just before they get inpatient treatment. The new law took effect yesterday is stating that mentally ill people, expect those with severe mental illness or the capability to harm themselves must receive inpatient treatment only on a voluntary basis.

The new law also requires all medical institutions to respect patient rights if the patient decides to be discharged. Since it was drafted the law attracted attention and have been under discussion since reports of people being institutionalized wrongly have been increased. The law also states that these medical institutions must not hold any infringement on the dignity, personal safety and property of the people with mental illness.

Medical institutions and individuals are obliged to protect the privacy of all mentally ill patients and prevent leaks of private and personal information unless the sharing of such information is necessary.

The National Center for Mental Health said that there are more than 170 million people in China suffering from sort of mental illness since 2009 and the number of patients with severe mental illness have exceed 16 million.